The Legislative Yuan on Tuesday passed amendments to the Act for the Establishment of the National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology (國家中山科學研究院設置條例) to impose travel restrictions on institute employees to protect technological secrets, among other changes.
The amendments are part of an effort to address regulatory issues arising from the institute’s decoupling from the Ministry of National Defense in 2014, which turned the nation’s defense research and development group into a governmental foundation.
If the amendments are promulgated, institute employees would have to obtain permission from authorities before traveling abroad.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The amendments would also allow the institute to hire active-service military personnel, which eliminates bureaucratic rules that lawmakers across the political divide considered an impediment to the institute’s work.
The amendments authorize the institute to employ up to 858 active-service personnel with the appropriate technical expertise and exempt it from Paragraph 1, Article 20 of the Non-Departmental Public Bodies Act (行政法人法).
This means members of the armed forces can be employed at the institute while keeping their active-service status and benefits.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Yu-ling (呂玉玲) were among the bipartisan group of lawmakers who proposed the changes to the hiring rules.
The amendments would facilitate the recruitment of military-trained engineers and experts, and give the institute the flexibility it needs to design the military’s weapons and equipment, the amendments’ statement of purpose said.
Performance evaluations at the institute must be stepped up, including following certain defense ministry protocols when conducting on-site re-evaluations, the amendments say, adding that re-evaluation reports must include a justification of their findings.
No gender should be represented by more than 75 percent of performance evaluation personnel, the amendments said.
Lawmakers said in an attached resolution that the defense ministry should within six months report to lawmakers on proposals to create a liaison system between the institute’s military officers and the armed forces.
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